


Memory Lane

by Merkwerkee



Series: Being Bruno Hamilton [43]
Category: Masters of the Metaverse (Web Series)
Genre: Episode Tag, Introspection, s7 e13: Source Code
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:27:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25737268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merkwerkee/pseuds/Merkwerkee
Summary: Even as he heads back to Washington D.C. for yet more congressional hearing, Bruno can't help but wonder how far a bond goes, and what he'd do if he ever lost his granddaughter.
Series: Being Bruno Hamilton [43]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1643020





	Memory Lane

Bruno sat in silence as Reese creaked and swayed over a highway in Virginia, heading back towards DC.

Reese was a useful ally, in spite of his completely baffling nature. Whatever force allowed him to move allowed him to move fast, much faster than a number of other more conventional vehicles. That, combined with his ability to chameleon into basically anything, was what had allowed Bruno to get away from the seemingly endless meetings in Congress to see his granddaughter for a few days.

When Bruno had found the stagecoach parked outside his current government-issued housing in the guise of an old station wagon, Reese had claimed that he’d simply been in the neighborhood looking for a drink - then offered Bruno a lift down to Archangel base, since he was “heading that way.” Bruno would have suspected Leibowitz-O'Kelley’s interference in getting the transforming stagecoach up into DC like this, but the man had adamantly refused to have anything to do with the submersible stagecoach after the government had revoked his persona non grata status and he’d been allowed to leave Archangel Base without being shot into little pieces.

Still, whatever the reason for Reese’s appearance, the offer had been too tempting and Bruno had grabbed his go bag from his room - and, after a brief moment of consideration, a briefcase full of papers and writing utensils so he’d have something to work on during the trip - and climbed in. Thirty hours overland was no joke, but Reese’s tireless nature and negligent disregard for whether or not he was actually on a road had made the trip shorter than it would have been otherwise. The most annoying part was Reese begging for a drink whenever Bruno requested a pit stop; it was too much trouble getting enough to fill his tank, and the disappointed sighs whenever the booze ran out were a little grating.

Still, they made the trip in record time and not two days later they were surfacing in the hidden base on Archangel Island.

Bruno’s reunion with Andi in person had been brief; he’d arrived just as she was about to go on another mission with Stone and Jaxun, so he’d volunteered to go along with. Finding himself in an avatar completely separated from all the others had been something of a nasty surprise; that, and the lingering weariness of weeks of testifying before Congress had made him a bit clumsy in his approach to his avatar, putting him at the forefront immediately with no hint of Night Watch coming through. His avatar had accepted the decision without a qualm, hiding in the back of their shared mindspace as much as his physical body was hiding in the guise of a hot dog vendor.

That trend continued for a goodish bit of while; the only time Night Watch showed any interest in pushing forward was when Hotwire had jumped them off the bridge. Bruno’s brief panic at the high-speed free-fall had been enough to pull a hint of the stoic ninja to the fore, but he’d relented again easily enough when Bruno had needed to be in full control to deal with the cutters. It wasn’t until Bruno consciously let go and invited Night Watch to the fore that the ninja truly stepped forward.

Night Watch, like Bruno himself, was highly focused and mission oriented. He had his goals in order of priority, and his fallbacks for when things inevitably went to shit. Unlike Bruno, Night Watch was a still river that ran deep; where Bruno would take the most direct action, Night Watch would stop and wait for the precise moment. His skills reflected that, with an emphasis on stealth and speed and dealing with enemies before they even knew he was there. In the helter skelter, tactically nonsensical enemy responses in this world he was a breath of fresh air and Bruno observed him from the back of their shared mind space with appreciation for another professional at work.

And then Andi had taken an RPG to the face.

Bruno’s mind had stalled for a moment, shock and horror paralyzing him as he saw blood spray into the air. Night Watch hadn’t even hesitated, the wielder of the grenade launcher having identified himself as being clearly the biggest threat in the room. Night Watch didn’t bother trying to simply subdue the enemy this time, as he had earlier; this time, the garrote was in his hands and around the soldier’s throat before Bruno had quite grounded himself. The familiar feeling of blood dripping over their shared hands - even though it vanished in the next instant - was enough to galvanize him and he pushed his way to the fore of their shared consciousness.

In complete control of his avatar, Bruno had instinctively reached for the bond to Kaldegga deep inside him. He was surrounded by _too many_ enemies; they were _too close_ to him, and by far _too close_ to _her_. The windstorm he had conjured was a desperate, unfocused thing but it was sufficient to send all the nearby enemies scattering every which way. Jaxun had taken advantage of the chaos to shoot two of the people about to enter vehicles, and Stone had started to emit a high-pitched, annoying noise before throwing a car into a knot of soldiers. But it wasn’t until Andi stood up from where she’d been thrown by the RPG, blood streaming from her nose and a cut above one eyebrow that Bruno had felt some of the anxiety clenching in his chest ease.

Bruno had been enjoying being out in the metaverse again with Andi; the way she’d grown had left a warm feeling in his chest. Her feats of strength and daring had made him feel younger than he had in decades, and at several points he hadn’t been able to resist the urge to point out a particularly good move. She was his _granddaughter_ , the only family he had left, and he would be _damned_ before he let anyone hurt her and live to tell the tale.

Even now, sitting in a stagecoach rolling down the highway, the thought of someone hurting his granddaughter and _getting away with it_ was enough to make his fists clench reflexively. Bruno took a deep breath and let it out slowly, forcing his fists to relax as he did so. The feeling of protective anger was his, he was pretty sure - Kaldegga hadn’t a protective bone left in his body, as near as Bruno had been able to tell in their brief acquaintanceship - but the ugly need to _hurt_ anyone who hurt her - to revisit on them a _thousandfold_ what they had the _temerity_ to do to Andi -

That kind of white-hot rage, the thirst for vengeance, that _need_ to hurt the enemy soldiers, had had him reaching for the ceiling above their heads and pulling. He’d tapped the deep well of power behind his breastbone and let it resonate with the ceiling, willing the concrete to shatter and rain down on his enemies. The concrete had resisted him, much more so than the stone of the cave had when he’d last tried the trick, and while later events had explained why that was it hadn’t mattered much in the moment. When the well in his chest had run dry, not nearly enough of the soldiers were dead; he’d picked up the launcher that had dropped from the one Night Watch had garroted and fired it into the ceiling above the largest remaining cluster.

Bruno shook his head. He should have just used the rocket launcher right away. That personal, deep-seated need for vengeance - that thirst for the pain of his enemies, that was detrimental to the mission. He’d experienced such a bleed before, on ARENA, and he’d made a personal note to keep an eye on it. The problem was that it had felt… _natural_. Like it had simply come from a part of himself, in the same, sickening way Ramsbottom’s love of Jane had gotten tangled up in Bruno’s love for Lori. Later, after all the information TOM had laid at their feet - Dreams? Nightmares? Bruno wasn’t sure what to think about that, and there hadn’t been time to talk to Andi or Jaxun before he’d had to leave - it hadn’t been just the fact that next destination was an enemy stronghold where the enemy determined what reality looked like that made him suggest talking to Dr. Clarkson.

A thirst for vengeance was not mission readiness. The kind of heartsick love Ramsbottom had had in spades was not mission readiness. And yet _neither_ feeling would stay in the neat, compartmentalized boxes Bruno had been using for years. Decades. Whenever he looked away for a moment they kept creeping back out and coloring his actions and intentions. If he couldn’t get a grip on himself -

“Do you want a beer?”

Reese’s voice interrupted Bruno’s thoughts unexpectedly, and the older man blinked.

“Didn’t you drink all the beer from the last gas station forty miles ago?”

The question was largely rhetorical as Reese couldn’t drink by himself when he was a vehicle; he needed someone else to pour the bottles down his intake. Bruno had spent a solid half an hour pouring bottle after bottle down the small drain concealed beneath one of the seats until the case of beer he’d bought had run out.

“Yeah, from the last stop - but there’s some I have under the seat next to you I was saving for an emergency.”

Bruno raised an eyebrow - he was never quite sure how much Reese could see in his own interior, but he made the gesture anyway just in case. “And what’s the emergency?”

Reese swayed from side to side even more broadly than usual, which Bruno interpreted as a shrug. “You seem kind of down, is all. Beer makes me feel better, why shouldn’t it help you?”

Bruno shook his head. “I don’t think a drink is going to fix my problems,” he responded dryly, and Reese swayed again.

“Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. I’m driving, couldn’t hurt to give it a go.”

Bruno blinked and shrugged, before lifting up the seat beside him. Sure enough, underneath the seat was a case of beer. A familiar green case.

Bruno’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Why do you have a case of Heineken under your seat?” he asked, keeping his voice calm and level. He didn’t even want to contemplate a transforming stagecoach with mindreading powers…

“One of the guys on the base told me to get some, said it was your favorite. The one who wears sunglasses all the time and has the weird big feeling to him?”

“Crash Jaxun?” Bruno asked, confused. True, he’d eaten in the diner with the kid after the mission to ARENA which would explain how he knew Bruno preferred Heineken, but - “And what do you mean by weird big feeling?”

“Yeah, him. Didn’t you notice? Him and the red-haired woman have _more_ to them than anyone else. There’s just more _there_.”

Bruno digested that for a few minutes while Reese continued down the road.

“Reese?”

“Yeah?”

“What do you see when you look at me?”

Reese paused for several long moments, though whether he was thinking about what he was going to say or giving Bruno a once-over inside the cab, Bruno couldn’t tell.

“You look like Nick. Or that other guy who talks a lot - we were never really introduced. There’s not as much to you as Crash Jaxun or Red Hair, but more than most of the others. Only, it’s a little bent? It’s weird. Something’s not quite right.”

Bruno looked at the bottles under the seat one more time before putting the leather cushion down.While the beers in the diner had done nothing to him, he wasn’t sure if that was an effect of the diner or something that had followed him out of the metaverse; either way, it probably was not the best idea to imbibe before a meeting with some senators.

“Thanks, Reese, but I’ll pass.”

Reese swayed again.

“More for me, I guess.”

Both of them fell silent as Reese continued down the road.


End file.
